What is 'suitable accommodation' for care leavers? - New report on survey findings
What was it about?
The government is reviewing the guidance and regulations that outline what local authorities should provide for young people in and from care. One of the new elements in the draft guidance and regulations is a list of questions that local authorities should ask to determine whether a young person’s accommodation [in an unregulated setting] can be considered suitable or not (Schedule 6 of Care planning regulations). The National Care Advisory Service (NCAS) conducted a quick online survey with care experienced young people and those that support them to find out what they thought is suitable accommodation for care leavers, using the list of questions in the regulations and additional issues highlighted through our work on accommodation for care leavers
Findings
State of repair, safety/security, location, support and affordability were all priorities that people identified prior to being asked about the specifics of Regulation 6 and four of these are already included in the Regulation. However the detail of what these categories include needs more work. We suggested several additional questions in this survey that respondents felt were as important as the issues already included in Regulation 6. The survey illustrated that it is difficult to narrow down the list of questions to ask to determine suitability, as all but two of the questions were considered important by over three quarters of respondents.
Download the report on the findings
Recommendations
We have forwarded this to the DCSF to help inform their redrafting of the guidance and regulations on Care planning and Planning transitions to adulthood. As you will see in the report there are our recommendations based on the findings of the survey focus on three areas:
- Expand the list in schedule 6 and add additional cateogory of 'affordability'
- Clarity on the process for checking suitability for care leavers: the need for practice guidance
- Link to statistics
Conclusion
Accommodation is clearly a big issue for care leavers – reflected in the quick and high response rate to this survey and numerous other research reports and accounts from young people. With the suite of guidance and regulations currently being revisited the government have a real opportunity to improve outcomes and experiences for young people leaving care. We hope they take on board the findings from this survey.